Monthly Archives: April 2012

Plug-in electric cars make up a tiny fraction of new passenger
vehicles sold, but they’re rising fast.
Despite a huge jump in plug-in vehicle sales from 2010 (345
nationwide) to 2011 (17,813), they only accounted for .03 percent
of new cars sold, according to the Northwest Power and Conservation
Council. Some 314 of the Volts were registered in the Northwest,
and 1,572 of the Leafs.
Then, probably in response to spiking gas prices, plug-in car sales
boomed in 2012. In the first three months, Chevy Volt sales jumped
224 percent and Nissan Leafs 283 percent nationwide compared to
2011.
Northwest Power planners have to keep an eye on electric cars and
all kinds of consumption to make sure there’s enough juice for
everybody. They’re not expecting to have to build any new plants.
Electric appliances will have to meet several new federal
requirements over the next several years, and plug-in cars are
generally recharged overnight when power demand is low.
The council is bumping up its estimate of how much power plug-in
vehicles will use in the future in light of consumer response to
high gas prices and technological advances that allow the cars to
travel farther before recharging. They’re now predicting it’ll
range between 130 to 580 megawatts per year by 2030. I don’t
understand why the huge gap. The high number is the equivalent of
about 350,000 Northwest houses.

The Kingston ferry route was one of
four that had perfect on-time performances in March. On time for
Washington State Ferries means leaving the dock within 10 minutes
of the time printed on the schedule. Besides Edmonds-Kingston, the
other routes were Point Defiance-Tahlequah, Mukilteo-Clinton and
Anacortes-Sidney, B.C., which only had 13 sailings.
Seattle-Bremerton finished the month at 98 percent,
Seattle-Bainbridge at 98.8 percent and Fauntleroy-Southworth at
97.5 percent.

The main reason for delays was heavy
traffic, particularly at Port Townend-Coupeville and
Bainbridge.

This month probably won’t be as good
because two Triangle route boats are being slowed to preserve their
drive motors.

Lawmakers gave some teeth to the state’s DUI laws a couple weeks
ago, but nothing like a couple national groups want to do.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and an industry
coalition called the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety are
developing a DADSS — Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety.
Their goal is to equip every passenger vehicle in the country with
technology to disable the car if the driver is drunk.
Here in Washington, some drunken drivers can get their licenses
back if they install an ignition-locking device. Though you need to
blow a .08 blood alcohol level to get busted for DUI, a .025 will
keep the car from starting, said Washington State Patrol spokesman
Bob Calkins. Once the car is running, there’s a retest within the
first 10 minutes, and randomly after that.
For a first offense, you need to keep the interlock device at least
one year, at least five years for a second and at least 10 for
three or more DUIs.
Cops figure people need to get to work or take their kids to
school, even if they’ve been busted for DUI, so they’re better off
driving an interlock-equipped car than driving illegally and
possibly drunk.
Now, with a bill signed by Gov. Gregoire on March 29, the ignition
interlock device must come with a camera so the drunk can’t have
somebody else blowing into it. And the drunk must foot the bill for
the device, which can be a couple hundred bucks to install and
another $50 to $100 a month to rent.
The bill, which passed the House by a 98-0 vote and 49-0 in the
Senate, also:
Authorizes police to administer breath or blood tests for felony
DUI arrests without the suspect’s consent.
Raises the amount of emergency response costs DUI offenders are
liable for from $1,000 to $2,500.
Requires plea agreements and sentences for felony DUI cases to be
kept as public records and prevents courts from vacating
convictions for felony DUI.
Authorizes courts to order offenders to submit to alcohol
monitoring.
Expands DUI laws to cover “huffing.”
I can’t disagree with any of this. If anything, it’s still not
stiff enough. I guess if you get drunk and go into the ditch, it’s
one thing while causing a wreck that gets somebody killed is
another. A lot what you run into is just luck and fate,
however.
Suppose you do kill somebody. Another bill this year increased the
penalty for vehicular homicide from two to three years in prison to
six to eight years. It still doesn’t seem like much for taking a
life.
Drunken drivers kill more people in Washington state than all other
criminals combined, if you count the drivers themselves. From 2000
to 2010, drunk drivers killed 2,042 people, according to the FBI’s
Uniform Crime Report. That’s more than the 2,028 people who were
the victims of an intentional killing during the same period.
The national groups mentioned earlier, which include most of the
world’s auto makers, have spent four years and $10 million
preparing to tackle drunk-driving deaths. They look at alcohol
detectors as standard safety equipment, and want to put them in
every car like airbags and seat belts. They’ve recently completed
the proof-of-concept phase and now are beginning two years
demonstrating alcohol detection systems. They could begin to be
installed in vehicles in eight to 10 years.

People will complain it’s more of the nanny state and Big
Brother taking over, but if they do it right, it’s OK by me.
Restaurant trade groups want to keep an increase from $10 million
to $24 million for the program out of the federal transportation
budget. They say DADSS supporters claim the alcohol detectors would
be set at .08 BAC, but due to legal, liability and logistical
concerns, they would have to be below the legal limit, most likely
around .03 to .04 percent.

Then there’s the problem of misreads. If the devices were
reliable 99.99966 percent of the time, that would still be more
than 4,000 misreadings a day, 4,000 sober people who couldn’t drive
their cars, according to Sarah Longwell, managing director of the
American Beverage Institute.